For over 100 years Pine Mountain has been focused on enriching lives and connecting people through Appalachian place-based education for all ages.
An in-depth digital look at the Pine Mountain Settlement School Archive. The collections
ARCHIVE INDEX TO SERIES AND GUIDES
FULL INDEX TO COLLECTIONS
Now over 2,000 pages of local and regional history and biographies.
ABOUT THE ARCHIVE
OUR VISION
The Vision of the Pine Mountain Settlement School Archive is to provide a voice that will encourage transformations in our relationship to the cultures of the Appalachian region through access to a unique and extensive body of material about a rural settlement school within the region. The rural settlement school movement and its impact on the people of Eastern Kentucky and the Southern Appalachians is a story that has sometimes been misrepresented, romanticized, or only partially understood. We envision an accessible, deep, vibrant and vital resource that will encourage exploration and collaborative dialogue about the hidden and sometimes contested history of rural settlement schools. We envision broader dissemination of research materials across all public, private, and federal sectors interested in Appalachian cultures and life. more …
OUR ARCHIVAL MISSION
The Pine Mountain Settlement School archival mission supports the institutional mission and strategic planning goals. Our institutional mission continues a long 107-year history of multiple educational and social enrichment programs centered on the local community and beyond. Once a boarding school with a progressive educational curriculum, Pine Mountain School’s recent educational programming has moved away from residential education to multi-faceted offerings of short-term environmental, cultural, medical, social, agricultural, and art and craft programs and workshops. But, the archive has not moved away from, nor will it move away from, a commitment to Pine Mountain as place and people. more …
To access the Archive go to INDEX TO ARCHIVAL COLLECTIONS (also at the top of the page).
Go to PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL MAIN PAGE to learn more about the School’s current workshops, community interaction, annual events, and other activities. It is also where you can find information about donating to the School and visiting the campus.
COVID NOTES
Consult the following for current information regarding Kentucky COVID regulations and guidelines
https://govstatus.egov.com/kycovid19
https://governor.ky.gov/covid19
WHAT’S NEW AND OLD!
SEPTEMBER 2020
HISTORIES 1899 A Novel Excursion
by Maria McVay
An interesting 1898 camping trip taken by Katherine Pettit and 19 others to Eastern Kentucky. Organized by Berea College, this trip led to Pettit’s founding of Pine Mountain Settlement School in 1913.
DANCING IN THE CABBAGE PATCH Sheep
“The hills shall skip like lambs,” she sang
Of the mountain scallops ‘gainst the sky engraved.
Anew with gushing torrents laved
Were the mountain sides, and gay
With sarvice and red maples braved.
Sarah Marcia Loomis, PMSS c. 1928
DANCING IN THE CABBAGE PATCH Moonshine
Not long after, the preacher heard his mountain friend was drunk and riding to his cabin asked point blank,
“Did you get drunk?”
“Yes” was the answer,
“I got powerful drunk but I got drunk innercent.“
SEE WHAT’S NEW! ARCHIVE for previous featured collections. For example: GUIDE TO FAMILIES IN PINE MOUNTAIN VALLEY COMMUNITY.
LATEST ADDITIONS
OCTOBER 2020
10/18 JAMES HERBERT HALL Student
10/16 JAMES HERBERT HALL Correspondence
10/10 EGRE MANNING Student, Staff – Student 1928-1932 & Asst Farmer 1932-1933.
10/10 EGRE MANNING Correspondence 1933-1934.
10/8 WINIFRED POWELL Staff – Biography of a PMSS Teacher, Housemother, 1931-1939.
10/5 WINIFRED POWELL CORRESPONDENCE II 1936-1938
10/3 WINIFRED POWELL CORRESPONDENCE I 1931-1935 – Images and list of contents of a housemother’s letters.
SEPTEMBER 2020
9/29 MARY COOK ROGERS Staff Biography; MARY COOK ROGERS Correspondence. – Mrs. Rogers worked as a dietician at Pine Mountain Settlement School from December 1946 until Sept 1947.
9/25 MEDICAL SETTLEMENT BIG LAUREL Prospectus 1921-1940 – Outline of objectives, financials, and staffing of the medical settlement at Big Laurel.
9/25 GLYN MORRIS TALKS 1937 ‘Tight Places‘ – Images and transcription; includes a prayer.
9/21 MARGARET FROST TWICHELL Correspondence, 1942-1955. Margaret “Peggy” Twichell served as a nurse’s assistant in the Infirmary from 1942 to 1943. See also: MARGARET FROST TWICHELL Biography.
9/20 ADMINISTRATION PMSS Government and Corporate Relations Component 1983 – Development plans to enlarge the base of support for the Pine Mountain Settlement School.
9/17 DEAR FRIEND Letter 1949 – James S. Crutchfield describes several major changes at Pine Mountain Settlement School.
9/16 DANCING IN THE CABBAGE PATCH Trees
9/16 DANCING IN THE CABBAGE PATCH Moonshine
9/16 DANCING IN THE CABBAGE PATCH Sheep – A history of sheep and related weaving in the Pine Mountain valley and Central Kentucky.
9/11 HAZEL HELEN MACKAY Correspondence
9/12 HAZEL HELEN MACKAY Staff – Biography of a nurse at Big Laurel Medical Center, 1924-1925
9/10 HISTORIES 1899 A Novel Excursion by Maria McVay – A travel journal of 1899 trip to Eastern Kentucky of a group of 19. The weeks-long journey included Henry Mixter Penniman (leader from Berea), Madeline McDowell Breckenridge and Ellen Churchill Semple, among others.
9/8 THE WILDERNESS ROAD IN KENTUCKY by Wm Allen Pusey I – Full text of the early and important book that traces the course of the well-known pioneer road.
THE WILDERNESS ROAD IN KENTUCKY by Wm Allen Pusey II
9/7 BARBARA WILBUR FAULKNER Correspondence – Staff at Pine Mountain Settlement School in the late 1930s.
9/5 LUCRETIA GARFIELD Correspondence Part 2 – Granddaughter of President Garfield and staff at Pine Mountain Settlement School in the 1920s
AUGUST 2020
8/28 LUCRETIA GARFIELD Correspondence Part 1 – Granddaughter of President Garfield and staff at Pine Mountain Settlement School in the 1920s
8/18 FARM Guide to Sheep, Goats, Weaving – A guide to the history of sheep in the Pine Mountain valley from pioneer days until the present.
8/18 FARM Harlan County Farm Defense Program WWII by William Hayes, PMSS Farm Supervisor, as a special to The Pine Cone, 1942.
8/18 PUBLICATIONS RELATED W.H. Gaumnitz “Education in the Southern Mountains 1938 – “Through a deep dive into scientific data and graphs, the various modes of education in the Southern Mountains are explored.”
8/18 CHARLES F. NESBITT Staff at Big Laurel Medical Center, 1923-1924. Married Aileene Lewis.
8/16 AILEENE LEWIS NESBITT Staff at Big Laurel Medical Center, 1923-1925. Married to Charles F. Nesbitt.
8/14 AILEENE LEWIS NESBITT Correspondence
8/10 Dr. ABBY NOYES LITTLE Correspondence, 1926-1947, after she left the PMSS Infirmary in 1918.
8/10 MARGARET MOTTER Talk ‘Mixin Larns Both Parties‘
JULY 2020
7/30 Dr. KENNETH GOULD Staff – Biography of an Infirmary doctor, 1932-1933
7/28 Dr. KENNETH GOULD Correspondence
7/26 PARK W. FISHER Visitor – Correspondence – Sought PMSS’s help with his WWI fundraising efforts.
7/10 – 7/27 DEAR FRIEND Letters and Brochures 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971 (Go to DEAR FRIEND LETTERS Index for links.)
7/9 ADELE BRANDIES ARTICLE “Pine Mountain Settlement School 1951” & Brochure
7/7& 7/9 DEAR FRIEND Letters and Brochure 1950 & 1952 – Fundraising mailings.
7/6 RUTH STRANG Visitor – Biography of well-known Rural Youth Guidance Institute consultant and participant, beginning in 1936.
7/1 ALUMNI RELATIONS 1997 Mailing – PMSS Association of Alumni & Friends mailing.
COMMENTS and CONTACT
Comments and feedback regarding the material on this website or on the institutional history are welcomed. Comments directly on the website are not enabled.
Please contact office@pinemountainsettlementschool.com or (606) 558-3571 with your inquiries and comments. We welcome your identification of people and activities on our site and, particularly, corrections to the record. Please see OUR PRIVACY POLICY and contact our office if you believe we have violated your rights to privacy.
PMSS ARCHIVE MISSION STATEMENT (extended)
FORMS & INFORMATION
ORAL HISTORY RELEASE AGREEMENT
ORAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION – PRINCIPLES AND BEST PRACTICES
ABOUT OCR TEXT
Many of the texts included in this site have been automatically generated using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. In some cases, these texts have not been manually reviewed or corrected.
OCR enables searching of large quantities of full-text data, but it is not 100% accurate. The level of accuracy depends on the print quality of the original publication and its condition at the time of microfilming. Publications with poor quality paper, small print, mixed fonts, multiple column layouts or damaged pages may have poor OCR accuracy.
CITATION OF MATERIALS
Any PUBLIC use of material must properly cite Pine Mountain Settlement School in the following manner:
“[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. [date], Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. [date accessed]
STATEMENT REGARDING PRIVACY
The manuscript collections and archival records in the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections may contain sensitive and/or confidential information derived from historical archives that may be protected under federal and state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers who wish to publish and users who may share material from the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections are advised by this notice that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in some collections within the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g. may be a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy if facts concerning an individual’s private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person for which Pine Mountain Settlement School assumes no responsibility.
If you believe that your privacy rights have been invaded please notify the following.
office@
See INDEX TO COLLECTIONS for an overview of collections and series.